


True Love's First Kiss

by Creator_Chaos



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Fairytale Themes, Intangibility, Other, no kissing sorry to disappoint, nonbinary Astral, xenophilia issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-13 20:18:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9140671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Creator_Chaos/pseuds/Creator_Chaos
Summary: Astral knows ze isn't human. Nevertheless, sometimes the stories on TV are surprisingly relatable.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I was reading a book with a frog prince theme and decided to write something self-indulgent. Feedback appreciated!

“Yuuma, why would one ever wish to kiss an animal?”

“What?”

“I thought that kissing signified a particular form of human love. I realize that Cathy cares about her cats a great deal, but all my observations have suggested this is not the same thing.”

“I mean, some people are weird…” Yuume replied distractedly. “Wait, where did this come from?”

Astral pointed to the television that played in the background while Yuuma sorted through his cards. “A frog just requested that this young woman kiss it. She seems to be considering doing so, if this musical number accurately reflects her thoughts.”

Yuuma snorted. “Animals don’t talk but you’re not asking about that.”

Astral gave an impatient sigh. “I am aware that fictional works do not always reflect what is possible in reality, but the motivations of fictional characters usually reflect real human motivations. Besides,” ze added, pouting as ze looked away, “you have already explained talking animals to me.”

He sighed, trading two cards between his hands absently. “It’s a fairytale, Astral. The frog wants her to kiss him so he can be a prince.”

Zir eyes widened. “This is what happens when frogs are kissed? Why would a frog have any knowledge of monarchy? What nation would it inherent? This seems like a very faulty system.”

“No, no!” he laughed, putting down the cards. “It’s just, like, this thing that happens in fairytales. A prince or princess or something is put under an evil curse. They’re turned into a frog or a monster or put in an enchanted sleep. Then some other prince or princess comes along and breaks the spell with true love’s first kiss.”

“’True love’s first kiss’?”

He waved a hand dismissively. “It’s just part of the story. They know it’s true love because the spell is broken, and then they get married and live happily ever after and stuff.”

“’Happily ever after’,” Astral mused. “But what if they have already kissed their true love? What if they have kissed someone else?”

“Augh, I don’t know Astral, that never happens! It’s just how the stories go!”

Ze pondered this. “What is it about this kiss that overcomes the spell?”

“I dunno, it’s always part of the curse in the first place. I guess it’s like… their love is more powerful than what’s keeping them apart? I feel like some movie said that.”

“I see. Then the curse is keeping them apart by…” Ze glanced back at the television, where the song was coming to a close. “Making one of them a frog.”

“Yeah, or a monster or whatever. I mean, they can’t really be together as different species, right?” Yuuma glanced at Astral and gave a laugh he seemed to choke on halfway through.

“Of course,” Astral replied quickly. “I mean, of course they cannot. So, the idea is that the magic carried by the symbol of their love removes this barrier.”

“Er, sure… something like that.”

Astral nodded and Yuuma went back to fidgeting with his cards. “But,” ze began; Yuuma looked back up in annoyance. “What if they do not have a true love? Or if their true love cannot kiss them? Will the spell always remain?”

“That’s the idea,” he mumbled. “That’s usually the plot of the story—their love having to get passed the bad guy to reach them, or them meeting someone and learning to love. And of course getting the other person to love them before they’re stuck that way forever.”

“Getting the other person to love them?”

“Yeah, because the other person might think they’re just a monster, or… like you said, who would want to kiss a frog?”

“Who indeed.”

Yuuma had already started rereading a card. “Hm?” Ze shook zir head.

When Astral next spoke, the movie was nearly over—the frog now a prince, and destined to marry happily ever after, as promised. “Yuuma.”

He was putting the cards away while glancing at zim, perhaps afraid that without a distraction ze’d go look over them and undo all the plans he’d made (which ze probably should, really). “What?”

“Do you think losing my memories is like a curse?”

Yuuma frowned. “If it is, we don’t know who cast the curse. I mean, it happened when you met me. If I did it that’s kinda shitty.”

“That is not what I intended.”

“What is it then? You still thinking about the movie?” When ze didn’t reply, he continued, “Well if it is like a curse, we’re breaking it by collecting all the Numbers, right?”

“Can curses be broken in that way as well?”

“Yeah, the whole point is that each curse has its own way to break it. So you, heh, don’t need to worry about finding anyone to kiss you, okay?”

Finding someone did not seem to be the issue as Yuuma looked at zim with a silly grin on his face. Astral new next to nothing about kisses, but thought that if anyone in the world could work magic through one, if anyone could transform zim into something else, it would be him.

Zir fingers drifted over zir lips, zir own body and the Numbers (almost like zir body, really) the only things ze could touch. Astral didn’t know if this longing ze struggled harder and harder to ignore was love; couldn’t imagine that Yuuma, with his exuberant love for all things, felt anything more for Astral than he did for everyone else; but despite all that, Yuuma’s kiss could never reach zim anyway.

But then, ze’d never been a prince or princess, never been human. Perhaps the scattered Numbers were like a curse, but that was not truly what ze had been thinking of changing, and no curse had made zim an intangible ghost in Yuuma’s life, as separate from his vibrant humanity as a frog would be. A foolish thought, to break impossible barriers with impossible means.

Astral dwelled on this while Yuuma put on his pajamas, turned off the light (leaving the TV on for zim), climbed into his hammock—then, sleepily, brushed his hand through zir legs as ze hovered nearby.

“Yuuma?”

“I like how you are,” he mumbled into the netting. “So don’t go kissing someone and changing on me. Even if they’ve got a million princes and princesses in the Astral World.”

It was a moment before Astral had the presence of mind to chuckle. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”


End file.
